Tundergarth, a parish of Annandale, Dumfriesshire, containing Bankshill village, 4 miles E of the post-town, Lockerbie. A long narrow strip of country, descending south-westward from the watershed with Eskdale to within 2 ¾ miles of the river Annan, it is bounded NW by Dryfesdale and Hutton, NE by Westerkirk and Langholm, SE by Middlebie and Hoddom, and SW by St Mungo. Its utmost length, from NE to SW, is 9¾ miles; its breadth varies between 5 2/3 furlongs and 3 1/8 miles; and its area is 16 2/5 square miles or 10,513 ¾ acres, of which 32 are water. From a point ¾ mile below its source (780 feet above sea-level), the Water of Milk runs 12 ½ miles south-westward along all the Hutton and Dryfesdale and most of the St Mungo boundary, receiving by the way a dozen indigenous rivulets with an average length of about 1 ½ mile. The general surface of the parish is, in consequence, a declination to the Milk; but it is singularly broken into steep-sided vales and glens, and abounds in picturesque scenes. In the extreme SW it sinks to 295 feet above sea-level; and thence it rises north-eastward to 869 feet at a *northern spur of Brunswark Hill, 859 at *Risp Fell, 1045 at *Grange Fell, 992 at Blackston Hill, 1460 at *Hen Hill, and 1089 at Friar Edge, where asterisks mark those summits that culminate on or near to the south-eastern and north-eastern boundaries. Greenstone, clay slate, mica slate, and greywacke are the predominant rocks; and antimony has been found in small quantities. The soil of the lower grounds is partly thin and stony, but mostly fertile; of the higher grounds, is of cold character, resting on a retentive sub-soil. Not much more than one-fourth of the entire area is in tillage; about 150 acres are under wood; and the rest of the land is either pastoral or waste. Antiquities are remains of a Caledonian stone circle, the ` Seven Brethren,' on Whiteholm farm; a reach of the Roman road from Brunswark to Upper Nithsdale; small entrenched camps of the kind- provincially called birrens on a number of elevated spots; and the site of an ancient baronial fortalice called Tundergarth Castle. Some visitors admire Linhead Linn more than Hawthornden. Five proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 4 of between £100 and £500. Tundergarth is in the presbytery of Lochmaben and the synod of Dumfries; the living is worth £214. The parish church, 1¼ mile SW of Bankshill, was built in 1771, and is sufficiently commodious. The public school, with accommodation for 93 children, had (1884) an average attendance of 73, and a grant of £76, 18s. Valuation (1860) £4893, (1885) £8433, 4s. 7d. Pop. (1801) 485, (1831) 530, (1861) 570, (1871) 510, (1881) 466.—Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.
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